Rogers notes: “Big infrastructure is tempting – but the reality is that a ‘small is beautiful’ approach is proving to be the clear path for rural electrification in Africa.” As well as the high costs and low energy demands of rural customers, he explains: “even if it were possible to find the hundreds of billions of dollars needed to extend the grid in the near term, the challenge of maintaining it would be acute.” On a continent the size of the US, India, China, and most of Europe put together, there is currently “12% of the 725,000 kilometres of high-voltage transmission lines in the United States.”

Read more on the how decentralized renewables will be a “lean, clean growth machine” in the full article from ESI Africa: